Selangor will skip early polls, says Pakatan
UPDATED @ 04:30:55 PM 12-09-2012
Khalid previously said his administration wants to see its term to expiry. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Selangor will not hold state polls concurrently with an early 13th general election, federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) said today, citing complaints about the electoral rolls in the state.
PR now governs the states of Selangor, Kedah, Kelantan and Pulau Pinang.
“I agree with Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim that Selangor will not have state elections if there’s snap polls because SPR (the Election Commission) has not yet cleaned the names (in the electoral roll),” said Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at a press conference today.
According to Anwar, Selangor had offered funds to help the Election Commission (EC) in cleaning the electoral roll.
Anwar said Kelantan has decided to have state polls together with the general election, while Penang was still mulling over the option.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, who was also present at the press conference, said that the Kedah government has also not decided on when it will hold state polls.
PR appears to be echoing electoral reform group Bersih 2.0’s demand for a clean list of registered voters.
The group had on April 28 held its third rally to push for free and fair elections.
The electoral roll allegedly has discrepancies such as duplicate voters, overly large numbers of voters registered to a single address, the existence of voters already deceased and a suspicious spike in the number of civilian and postal voters.
Bersih’s seven other demands are the use of indelible ink, a minimum period of 21 days for campaigning, free access to the media for all parties, the strengthening of public institutions, stopping corruption and bringing an end to dirty political campaigning.
